My mature stranvaesia has developed a major problem. The white flowers opened but then rapidly withered and died. The leaves have now gone from a healthy green to yellow and in the space of a week turned brown. The base of the trunk appears to have a canker-like appearance. I have cut away the bark and treated with Arbrex. Do you think that the excessive rainfall has anything to do with this? There are signs of the same thing in my Skimmia.

5 Aug, 2012

Answers

Might be phytophthera - usually spread by water splash, so yes, a wetter year would have contributed. If the arbrex doesn't work and the shrub gets sicker, take it out and remove some of the soil which was round the roots as well.